The Freaks Come Out At Night
by Orwell is watching-xoxo
Summary: Originally meant for Friday the 13th: After another one of Peter Fleming's wonderful parties to get the Palm City residents to stay on his side, Vince and Orwell run into some potential danger. Question being: Is the danger real, or is it all a part of their imaginations? Evolving Vinwell.


**Here's a Vinwell fic to help celebrate Friday the 13****th****! Yes, I realize that it's no longer the thirteenth, but RL interrupted me from writing. **

**Canon this time around; I own nothing.**

_**The Freaks Come Out At Night**_

Vince Faraday hardly ever looked at the calendar anymore. It was far too depressing for him. With each and every passing day was another moment with his family that he could never get back. He had his partner, who meant more to him than he originally led on. She helped him deal with the fact that his name may never be cleared. And she also helped with the fact that his wife was moving on faster than he would have liked her to.

It was now Friday, July 13, 2012; coming up on two years since his supposed death. The vigilante would have liked to have kept that thought out of his head for years to come. The fact that he had to learn of his wife dating again was far too much for him to take.

Orwell had been a constant shoulder to lean on since then. This companionship was strong; so strong that it had developed into something new altogether. Those two were always there for one another. Inevitably, this brought them to fall in love.

- 0 -

Even though today had been one of the unluckiest days on the calendar, it didn't stop Peter Fleming from celebrating about it. He hosted a party at ARK, one that made the press go wild as usual. Vince and Orwell went to get as much information as they could about the billionaire's next _genius _plan. Anything that the brunette got, whether it would be photos or recordings, she used on her blogs. It didn't matter that she was working against her father, who was still trying to get in contact with her; Vince meant the world to her. If what he wanted was his family back and his name cleared… then that would be what she worked her ass off to do for him.

The Friday the 13th party was mostly a bummer, as far as the blogger and her partner were concerned. No new business settlements had been mentioned. Fleming was repetitive as a broken record player, not that that stopped the crowd from going wild, however.

Fortunately, there was an upside to an incredibly boring evening. Orwell got to hack into the ARK database and downloaded quite a few of blueprints for possible additions that could be coming to the building. No matter how seemingly innocent those additions may have seemed at first, the hacker knew that something wasn't right.

Vince pulled his mask off of his face, still keeping his hood up to conceal his identity. If it hadn't been for the party requesting 'costume only' attire, he probably would have had to sulk in the cave while his

partner did all of the work for him. Thank God Fleming was too busy to recognize the same hooded figure that was on the train… _and _with the T.R.A.C.E. incident.

"God, Orwell. I can't wait to go back to the cave and crash," the vigilante murmured towards his partner as he followed her down the sidewalk leading from ARK. Orwell tried to be the sensible one and convince the framed cop that it would be easier for her to drive instead, but he wanted to be a blockhead and claimed that it wouldn't hurt to walk back to the hideout. He _did _have military and police training, didn't he?

"The feeling is mutual, Vince. Believe me," the brunette threw back at him with a tiny smirk. Since the vigilante first learned about his wife dating someone else, the two had decided to move in together. Orwell wanted to make sure that her partner would be okay and Vince just needed a shoulder to lean on most days.

The two began walking down the sidewalk. It didn't seem so bad at first. There were street lights on both sides and they knew the streets like the backs of their hands. Simple enough, one would suppose.

If there was one thing that any two Californians could agree on, it would be that freezing cold wind, in the middle of summer, was a bad sign. When the hair on the back of Orwell's neck began to stick up because of the wind surging past her, she began to worry.

Vince noticed when his partner began to dig into her designer purse. A frown tugged at his lips as he asked, "Are you alright?"

"Just freaking out a little. What time is it?" the brunette asked, worry evident in her voice.

"A little before midnight; why?" the vigilante pulled the hacker over and gently bored his eyes into hers. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong, or leave me guessing?"

"I just have this weird feeling that we're being followed," Orwell whispered, looking behind her rather fervently.

"Orwell, there's nothing behind us," Vince wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. "I've got you. If there _was _somebody there, they'd have to come through me."

The brunette nestled herself deep into her partner's one-armed embrace as they continued down the sidewalk. Her stomach eased for a moment or so, until she heard a twig snap behind them.

The vigilante and blogger both stopped at that moment. He looked behind them in the direction of the noise, but laughed to himself as he saw nothing. "It was probably just a neighborhood dog walking around. They gotta pee too, don't they?"

Orwell shrugged her shoulders as her eyes danced across the darkness. "Could be. I'm… I'm just not thinking so."

"I think you're just overreacting because it's Friday the 13th. Besides, who would be following us?" Vince reminded his partner.

"Well, you know the saying, right? The freaks come out at night," the hacker mumbled quietly, pressing herself back against her partner.

"Do you not have faith in me, Orwell?" He just grinned down at the brunette. "I think I'm pretty qualified to keep us safe."

"I know you are. I just freak out easily. That's why I have so many _fancy _cars, as you'd liked to call them when we first met," Orwell replied, looking behind her one more time. That time, she could have sworn that she saw a masked man following behind them. He kept his distance, but the brunette had a feeling that he wouldn't have done so for long.

Vince caught her panicked expression from the corner of his eye. "Orwell, now you're going to start hallucinating 'cause you're so freaked out. If there was anyone else out here with us, I would have noticed something by now."

The hacker turned her head again, only to see nothing there. She took in a sharp gasp of air and continued to walk beside her partner. This was going to be the death of her, wasn't it?

As they went to turn on the road leading to their hideout, the vigilante started to hear things again. He could have sworn that he heard a blade being drawn across something. The noise broke the silence and inevitably gave the hero and his sidekick chills shooting up their spines.

"What's your smart ass comment for _that_?" Orwell asked in a fervent whisper.

"I… no longer have a positive comment for something like that. What the hell was that?" Vince pulled his partner in front of him protectively and scanned the area that had seemed to get darker with every passing second.

Nothing was there when he looked back, however. Something was with them, what its intention was, was still unclear.

The two of them began to pick up their paces. The sounds of their heartbeats were throbbing in their ears and they could still make out the faintest sounds of someone walking behind them. At that moment, they knew that the danger was real.

Orwell slipped out of her heels and ripped a slit in her dress for better leeway to get away from the crazy guy that was following them. Both of them were trying to keep their breaths short and quiet. Anything could give them away.

Vince was able to press thin against the outer wall leading to their hideout, waiting for whoever it was to pass them by. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, nothing did. Was it all a part of their imaginations, or were they sitting ducks, with the masked man waiting for the right moment to strike?

They were able to get back to the hideout unharmed, but the most unnerving thing was that a lone blade was left less than a foot away from their hideout.

**Well, what did we think? Wondering if those two had a little too much to drink and were hallucinating? Leave me a review and let me know!**


End file.
